Search for an address or location

To search by address, click on 'Search' tab on the panel right of the map (Figure 1).

Type in the desired address into the box.

This can be a town/suburb or part/full address.

If you type in a street name without a town, the search will display a list of all matches and you can click on the correct one.

Typing places such as a lake, airport or National Park do not work in this search.

Click on the button next to your desired location and the map will take you to it and put a green point on the map (Figure 2). If you search somewhere broad like Geelong, you will simply be taken to a point within the locality.

Query the map for information

Choose 'Query mode' you are interested in from the drop down box (right-hand side of the map underneath layers) (Figure 5). The default is 'Bores'.

To query the map, left-click mouse on point of map you are interested in.

A pop-up query will appear with information corresponding to the 'Query mode' you have chosen.

Figure 5

Related help topics: Layers will show you how to add map layers so you can correspond them to your queries.

Note: To speed up panning and zooming, the corresponding layer does not need to be ticked (excepting FFSR) for the query mode to work (so long as the correct query mode is chosen), although it is helpful if you are trying to view bores or EPA sites.

Sometimes more than 5 bores per data provider will be within a 500 m radius of your query point, and will not be shown in the initial query box. If this is the case you will see a 'Show All' button in the bore details query box (Figure 7). When you click on this, you may have to scroll down to see all bores.

Figure 6

Figure 7

Note: You will see in the figure that bore 307447 appears twice in Bore details query image shown (see Bore Numbering for why this is so). In the future we hope to synthesise this data so that you only need to click once to view all the data for each individual bore.

DEPI Statewide aquifers

Layers that correspond to the aquifers query are Depth to watertable, Groundwater salinity, Elevation of basement and Surface elevation, in which the values for each layer are shown when this query mode is selected (Figure 9).

There is also the option to left-click mouse on 'generate a report' (Figure 9), which will show the aquifers depths and age at the selected location (Figure 10).

Note: The layers in Advanced aquifer tools can be slow to load, and will still process even if you have unticked a layer. If the layers are still loading, you will see a pink bar in the lower right-hand side of the map.

EPA Victoria sites

Tick the EPA Victoria Sites layer to show the points on the map (Figure 14)

Select the 'EPA Victoria sites' from the drop down box in 'Query mode' (Figure 14).

Query (left-click map) an EPA Victoria site to show one of three differerent pop-up layouts depending on whether it is an EPA audit site (Figure 15), PSR location (Figure 16) or GQRUZ site (Figure 17).

Querying an EPA audit site will bring up some basic 'Feature Details' (Figure 15) and where available (as shown by a green dot), a link to EPA Victoria where you can view the reports.

Querying a PSR location will generate some basic details about the site (Figure 16) including the location and nature of the notice given.

Querying a GQRUZ site will generate some basic information about the restricted uses of the site (Figure 17). You can click on a PDF site map of groundwater restricted use zone as well as click on the reports.

Figure 14

Figure 15

Figure 16

Tip: PDF audit report links from the GQRUZ site are of varying file sizes. It is recommended to left-click and 'save as' to download the larger files.Note: The green dot GQRUZ sites need to be clicked exactly over the top of them as they have no buffer due to the nature of the format.

Find groundwater salinity

For a point/area (as TDS mg/L)

Groundwater salinity in the VVG portal is shown as values between a TDS (Total dissolved solids) range e.g. 500-1,000mg/L.

You can select 'Groundwater salinity' under 'Layers', which will generate a colour-coded map identifying a different colour per range of values (Figure 20).

To see the depth range that corresponds to each colour, select the 'Legend' tab.

To see groundwater salinity values for a particular point, change 'Query mode' to 'DSE statewide aquifers'. (this query mode will work regardless of whether 'Layers→Groundwater salinity' is selected or not).

Left-click mouse on the map point you would like to query and a table will pop up (Figure 19) showing the value ranges. Figure 19

Find historic boring records for a particular bore

Some bores link to the boring records, which are records of Victorian government drilling from 1879 to 1965. These records can be a useful source of extra information as there are sometimes pictures or chemistry records linked.